Syro
On his first album in 13 years, Richard D. James, the godfather of cerebral electronic music, is in top form. This isn\'t a comeback, nor a departure of any kind: *Syro* sounds like highly concentrated, classic Aphex Twin, a singular aesthetic that dates all the way back to 1982: beat patterns wiggle into the foreground, then disappear; analog synths snap, crackle and pop; moods vacillate between aggressively percussive and smoothly melodic. These tracks – they work together like one long set -- demand to be listened to with excellent headphones, the better to discern their highly intricate sequencing, arguably some of James\' most ambitious. Each tune is teeming with juicy noise, all of it gleefully arranged. What comes through most is joy: it sounds like James is having so much fun.
Aphex Twin's first album since 2001's Drukqs is sixty-five minutes of highly melodic, superbly arranged, precisely mixed, texturally varied electronic music that sounds like it could have come from no other artist. Syro absorbs many different sounds, from loping breakbeat to drum’n’bass to techno proper to hints of disco, but it has a way of making other genres seem like they exist to serve this particular vision.
Both the most visible face in electronic music—it’s leered disconcertingly from the covers of albums and the shoulders of bikini models—and its most enigmatic personality, Aphex Twin’s Richard D. James is an artist made for obsessives. His music’s rise coincided with the flourishing of the Internet, tailored for…
One of the great pioneers of electronic music (and beyond) makes an exhilarating return after a 13-year absence
Almost anything Richard D. James puts his hands and curious mind on—even the relatively straightforward acid house tracks he released under the name Analord through 2005—are little musical puzzles, puzzles that keep changing and adapting as you try to solve them, but also of a sort that if you just leave them be, the fractured picture in front of you is still satisfying.
Each genre has its gods. Rock has the Stones, pop has The Beatles, but when it comes to electronic music there are few who could rival Aphex Twin's truly individual and pioneering production.
Imagine a mirror which distorts not just the reflection, but reality itself—that’s the stunning legacy to which Syro triumphantly belongs.
Richard D James’s first album as Aphex Twin for 13 years won’t change the world, but it sees him doing what he does best, which can be jaw-dropping, writes <strong>Tim Jonze</strong>
Aphex Twin's first album in 13 years, Syro, is welcome reminder of Richard D James's unfettered imagination, says Bernadette McNulty
vyll333'n'quakkers, as Aphex might have it - a fine and enjoyably squelchy return, in other words. Review by Thomas H Green.